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The ROCK Linux Mission Statement

The ROCK Linux distribution has new Mission Statement, even more recently revised. "After 10 years of ROCK, we felt it's about time ;)." There is a new roadmap too.

ROCK Linux is one of the oldest projects that provides a Linux Distribution Build Kit. That is, ROCK Linux provides the tools you need to create a customized distribution from source packages.

The Crystal ROCK target ISO image is available for those who want a quick start and it is used as a test case for ROCK Linux. One part of the mission statement is to test and guarantee functionality of the basic packages, including Crystal ROCK. This includes issuing security advisories and maintaining errata documents.

The ROCK Linux Build System uses shell scripts to keep it easy to modify the build to your requirements. Support is provided for Alpha AXP, ARM, HPPA-RISC, IA-64, MIPS, PowerPC, Sparc, x86 and x86_64. According to the roadmap ROCK developers are working on hal/dbus integration, udevtrigger/udevsettle integration into bootdisk and /etc/initscript, hotplug rules for udev, and more for the next release. A new installer will be in the works after that. While there has not been a new release of ROCK Linux for some time, one is planned for the near future.

So check out the ROCK Linux Manual and build the distribution that's right for you.

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New Releases

Xandros Releases 64-bit Xandros Server

Xandros has announced that the Xandros Server now supports 64-bit processors from Intel and AMD. Support for Intel® EM64T and AMD64® processors will be provided to Xandros customers at no additional charge.

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Ubuntu 6.06 LTS released

It's official: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (once known as "Dapper Drake") has been released. Click below for the full announcement, which includes download information and a summary of new features. Kubuntu 6.06 LTS and Xubuntu 6.06 are also available.

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SUSE Linux 10.1 Live DVD available

The SUSE Linux 10.1 Live DVD is available for download now.

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Fedora Core 5 Re-Spin Released

The Fedora project has made new Fedora Core 5 "Re-Spin" disc images available. "The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the release of DVD ISO Re-Spins of Fedora Core 5. These ISOs are based upon Fedora Core 5 and all updates released as of May 23rd, 2006. They are available for i386 and x86_64 architectures as of Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 via BitTorrent. The x86_64 Re-Spin is currently available for testing only."

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Distribution News

Debian 3.0 ("woody") support ends June 30

The Debian Project has announced that Debian 3.0, otherwise known as "woody," will be unsupported after June 30. Any remaining woody users probably want to make the jump to "sarge" by then.

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Debian IRC Network moves to OFTC

It is official. "Starting with today the Debian IRC host alias irc.debian.org directs to irc.oftc.net maintained by the Open and Free Technology Community (OFTC). An increasing number of online discussions has been taken place in this network already despite irc.debian.org pointing to a different network. In recognition of that, Debian has decided to move the irc.debian.org alias over."

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Creation of the debian-publicity list

The debian-publicity team has been created to help create a better public image for the Debian Project. "We held a BoF at DebConf6 about "Representing Debian". We discussed many topics and this mail is not intended as an exhaustive summary (you will have to wait for the video recording to watch the discussion). Instead it's just a notice that things are changing and that you're invited to help us improve Debian's image."

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Summary of Debconf i18n/l10n activities

Christian Perrier presents a summary of the i18n/l10n activities at DebConf. "The work on internationalisation (i18n) and localisation (l10n) at Debconf6 has been particularly interesting and productive. The main topic has been the discussion on l10n infrastructure, both summarizing existing features and services (most of them being summarized in the paper I published along with Javier Fernandez Sanguino) and future features."

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GCC 4.1 now the default GCC version for Debian etch

The compilers from GCC 4.1 provide now the default compiler for etch for Ada, C, C++, Objc, ObjC++, Fortran95 and for the Java language. The packages should be in the archive now.

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Ubuntu begins Edgy development

The initial timeline for Edgy development has been posted. Much of the planning for Edgy will take place at the Paris summit so proposals need to be submitted before then. The deadline for proposing specifications is June 12, 2006.

The Ubuntu Hardened team is setting goals for proactive security in Edgy. "There is already a Proactive Security Roadmap, created originally as a Breezy specification but never brought to fruition. The specification for this details several steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of exploitation of existing vulnerabilities. This e-mail contains my suggestions for first steps that should be taken to give Ubuntu users the benefit of largely increased security."

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The problem of Firefox in Ubuntu Breezy

For those of you running Ubuntu 5.10 ("breezy"), the following message on security support for Firefox in that release is worth reading. Essentially, the Ubuntu developers are in a bind because the current round of Firefox security fixes is impossible to backport to the 1.0.8 release shipped in breezy, and, in any case, they suspect that security fixes beyond those which have been officially acknowledged are present in 1.5.0.4. So the chances are that breezy users will need to upgrade Firefox to 1.5.0.4. This situation is likely to repeat itself over the lifetime of the current "dapper" release, which will have support (for desktop components) for three years.

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Fedora Project Board Update

A summary of the June 6 Fedora Project Board meeting is available. Among the topics discussed were version control, infrastructure, possibilities for the next FUDCon, Fedora Legacy, the testing project announced at the Red Hat Summit, and more.

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rPath releases alpha version of rMake

rpath Linux has announced an alpha version of rMake. "rMake is a new tool for building software using Conary in a simple, controlled way. Before rMake, you had to install the right software on your system in order to use "cvc cook" to build a package. With rMake, a fresh clean build chroot is created automatically with everything a package needs to build--and only those items."

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New Distributions

Report from the "Dzongkha Linux launch"

Christian Perrier reports on the "Dzongkha Linux launch". Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan, a country located between India and China. The Bhutan Department of Information Technology (DIT) has built a complete system with complete support for the Dzongkha language. "The system is based on Linux and more specifically on Debian. It consists of one CD which can be either installed or used as a live CD (the installation system is using Morphix, not D-I which was not ready at that moment)."

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Distribution Newsletters

Debian Weekly News

The Debian Weekly News for June 6, 2006 covers the increased the performance of debtags, the trustability of the web of trust, the end of support for Woody, improving Debian's publicity, Debian Conference 6: hot, spicy and working hard, Debian IRC moves to OFTC, and several other topics.

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Fedora Weekly News Issue 49

This week the Fedora Weekly News covers Fedora Core 5 Re-Spin 20060523 released, the Fedora Interview Program, Fedora People at Red Hat Summit 2006, news coverage on Red Hat Summit 2006, adding new RPM packages to a fedora DVD, 45 Minutes to a Moodle Education Server, Red Hat Turns Over Testing Tools To Fedora, and several other topics.

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Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - Issue #1

The first issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter looks at a new look for www.ubuntu.com, Dapper release parties, Java in Multiverse, VMware Player in Multiverse, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS released, Kubuntu 6.06 LTS released, Edubuntu 6.06 LTS released, Xubuntu 6.06 released, the Paris Developers Summit, Edgy Eft Ideas and more.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 154

The DistroWatch Weekly for June 6, 2006 is out. "The long-awaited version 6.06 of the Ubuntu family of Linux distributions dominated the headlines of many open source news sites last week; we'll comment on the release and share our first impressions of the new product. In other news, the second Red Hat Summit, concluded last week, was characterised by the launch of several new initiatives, while the Debian release team has been busy finalising the feature set for the December release of Debian "etch". Also, don't miss our opinion piece about the changing landscape of Linux users prompted by the recent release of the binary-only Picasa photo management software for Linux. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the May 2006 DistroWatch donation has been awarded to LilyPond and Lua."

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Minor distribution updates

Ark Linux 2006.1-rc2 and Ark Linux Live 2006.1-rc2 released

The Ark Linux team has announced the immediate availability of Ark Linux 2006.1-rc2 and Ark Linux Live 2006.1-rc2. "This is the last release candidate of Ark Linux 2006.1, which will be released as soon as OpenOffice.org 2.0.3 and kernel 2.6.17 are released and integrated. The current release candidate includes prerelease versions of those."

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dyne:bolic 2.0 codename DHORUBA

dyne:bolic has announced the release of dyne:bolic 2.0 codename DHORUBA. "The brand new 2.0 "DHORUBA" release comes out after two years of development and it's a complete rebuild and rewrite of the whole system, it brings new possibilities in customizing the running system and makes it modular and very easy to include new software, much more usable and mantainable than before."

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Package updates

Fedora updates

Updates for Fedora Core 5: eclipse (bump for FC5), perl-String-CRC32 (upgrade to upstream version 1.4), texinfo (bug fix), alsa-lib (bug fix), procps (bug fix), policycoreutils (bump for FC5), gnome-media (upgrade to stable upstream version), yelp (upgrade to stable upstream version), hal (patched), gnome-applets (upgrade to stable upstream version), file-roller (upgrade to stable upstream version), pam (upgrade to latest upstream version), sound-juicer (upgrade to latest upstream version), vte (upgrade to latest upstream version), nautilus-cd-burner (upgrade to stable upstream version), gnome-desktop (upgrade to stable upstream version), epiphany (update to 2.14.2.1), eog (upgrade to stable upstream version), gtk2 (update to 2.8.18), glib2 (update to 2.10.3), gnome-session (upgrade to stable upstream version), gnome-screensaver (upgrade to stable upstream version), pango (upgrade to stable upstream version), evolution-data-server (update to 1.6.2), libsoup (update to 2.6.2), evolution-connector (update to 2.6.2), evolution (update to 2.6.2), gnome-games (upgrade to stable upstream version), gnome-themes (latest stable upstream release), gedit (latest stable upstream release), gnome-terminal (latest stable upstream release), totem (latest stable upstream release), gthumb (latest stable upstream release), gnome-utils (update zenity to 2.14.2), gnome-vfs2 (latest stable upstream release), libwnck (latest stable upstream release), control-center (latest stable upstream release), gnome-backgrounds (update to 2.14.2.1), module-init-tools (added blacklist-compat), evolution (fix broken dependencies), evolution-webcal (rebuild for new evolution-data-server).

Updates for Fedora Core 4: texinfo (bug fix), procps (bug fix), libbtctl (update for FC4), gnome-bluetooth (update for FC4)

Updates for Fedora Extras 5: dia (security fix).

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Mandriva updates

Mandriva has updated xorg-x11 packages to address a bug with keyboard layouts.

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rPath updates

rPath Linux has updated conary (maintenance release), cElementTree (add the turbogears suite), conary again (bug fixes), and booty and mkinitrd (better Xen support).

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Slackware updates

This week the Slackware current change log shows that the linux-2.6.16.19 kernel packages that entered testing on May 31 have already been upgraded to linux-2.6.16.20 kernel packages. Other upgrades include subversion, gkrellm, jfsutils, apache, KDE and more.

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Trustix Secure Linux updates

Trustix has fixed various bugs in mrtg and ntp.

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Newsletters and articles of interest

Customizing Dynebolic version 2 (Linux.com)

Linux.com covers the creation of a customized live CD using Dynebolic. "Dynebolic is a live CD distro packed with tools for working with sound and video files. Dynebolic uses the Squashfs filesystem to fit a lot of applications into a small space, along with a speed-tweaked kernel and the tools to perform well on low-end equipment. The upcoming Dyne:II release also lets you add and remove tools to create your own custom version of the distro. Here's how."

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Multi Distro is Linux times 9 on a single CD-R (Linux.com)

Linux.com takes a look at Multi Distro. "Multi Distro includes nine live CD Linux distributions in one ISO file that you can burn to a single disc. It uses the GRUB boot loader to present the user with a main menu from which they can choose which distro they want to run. By showing you how to make your own live CD composed of multiple live CD distros, Multi Distro packs a big punch."

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The Perfect Setup - Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server (HowtoForge)

HowtoForge shows how to set up a Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters.

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My desktop OS: Zeta (NewsForge)

NewsForge looks at BeOS based Zeta. "Zeta is based on the Be Operating System (BeOS). I have used BeOS since the free BeOS 5 Personal Edition was released in 2000, and its ease of use, quick boots, and minimal hardware requirements allowed BeOS to take full advantage of my computer, which had a 300MHz Celeron CPU, 64MB RAM, and 3dFX Voodoo 3 video adapter. Unfortunately, BeOS developer Be Inc. disbanded by the end of 2001, leaving an operating system that was unable to have more than 1GB of RAM, couldn't support up-to-date AMD and Intel CPUs without special boot disks, and lacked support for hard drives with more than 80GB of space and newer video cards."

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Distribution reviews

Review: CCux Linux (Linux.com)

Linux.com has a review of CCux Linux. "CCux Linux is a performance-oriented distribution whose main idea is to remove everything that is not i686-related, such as old compatibility packages, and to have everything from the kernel up compiled in the i686 flavor. Last month's release of CCux version 0.9.8 is also an up-to-date distro, having kernel 2.6.16, KDE 3.5.2, and Firefox 1.5.0.2. I found it to be a damn good distro."

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Damn Small Linux sneaks up on v3.0 (DesktopLinux)

DesktopLinux looks at the first release candidate of Damn Small Linux (DSL) 3.0. "The Damn Small Linux (DSL) project shipped the first release candidate of version 3.0 of its 49.5 MB bootable live CD distribution May 29. The changelog notes nine key feature updates in the new edition, including new sample unc extensions, abiword, cups, and opera852."

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Puppy Linux arrives at v2.0 (DesktopLinux)

DesktopLinux covers the 2.0 release of Puppy Linux. ""This is a major upgrade from the 1.xx series," the project team said in the release announcement. "How to summarize five months' work? The graphical user interface is much the same, as most work has been on the underlying architecture. In a nutshell, the fundamental architecture and boot-up/shutdown scripts are a total rewrite, from scratch, no relationship to any other distro.""

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STX Linux: A second life for older hardware (Linux.com)

Linux.com looks at STX Linux on older hardware. "Creator Michael "STIBS" Stibane calls STX Linux "a desktop Linux distribution especially targeted to older hardware." I tested version 1.0 of the Slackware 10.2-based distro on an old laptop with a 300MHz Celeron processor, 80MB of RAM, and a 4GB hard disk. I found this young distro for old hardware has promise."

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Ubuntu's Dapper Drake is one impressive Linux distro (Linux-Watch)

Linux-Watch reviews Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. "I took the slowest and oldest of my regular test systems, a 120MHz Pentium with a 10GB hard-drive and 64MB of RAM. This system normally runs NT 4.0 for testing older Windows networking. I was able to quickly and easily install Ubuntu Server."

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